


Carry An Awakening Word

by jesterlady



Category: Dollhouse
Genre: Alternate Universe - Apocalypse, Angst, Episode Related, Episode: s01e13 Epitaph One, Episode: s02e13 Epitaph Two: Return, Epitaph Verse, F/M, Imprinting, Memory Alteration, One Shot, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-08
Updated: 2011-11-08
Packaged: 2017-10-25 20:31:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/274477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jesterlady/pseuds/jesterlady
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometime after Safehaven, Tony gets wiped and becomes Victor again and Priya is caused to remember the good about their relationship</p>
            </blockquote>





	Carry An Awakening Word

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to write a story where Priya had to come to face with the tech and how interchangeable their Doll selves actually are. It pretty much wrote itself and I'm not even sure where the thought process behind it came from.  
> Disclaimer: I don't own Dollhouse. The title is by John Bunyan

She can't remember a time when she didn't know him, didn’t feel him like a constant shadow or light on her skin. That's a lie; she can remember her past perfectly. Australia with all its wonders, creatures, and memories. Her family, the family that she doesn't know their fate. Her first bike, the last day of high school, the kiss that her mates teased her about for weeks afterward, getting the money to come to America. It's all there, ready for her to recall, but it's not a part of her like he is. He is ingrained, sometimes within her soul, it seems, and she knows how painful it would be to not have him.

But then the doubt begins to creep in like the first hints of the dawn, a time she's always loved, and not nearly as hopeful. When she allowed VictorTopher to imprint so many skills within Tony's body, it had been a necessary evil, but she didn't count on how amazing it would be for him to know who he was and still have the incredible, unreal abilities that he now has. The thrill of perfection he calls them and she shudders when she thinks of the tone of devotion he uses as he says it. He wields them, time and time again, to protect her, to help Echo. T would never have been born if it weren't for them. She can forgive it because of that.

And then she can't because he's put studs on his face and in the moments when he's uploading new imprints the look on his face is alien to the familiarity she's become accustomed to. He's not Tony then, and yet, though she would call him Victor, when she does, Echo rebukes her.

“He's not Victor,” she would say. “I know Victor. Victor is a Doll. This is Tony.”

Echo must understand this, she has to. If she doesn't, how can she live with a hundred people in her head? But Echo hadn't originated that crime. It's something that was done to her, something she's had to learn to live with. And the fact that it's voluntary, that Tony does it, day in, day out, is unforgiveable.

When she calls him Victor, he looks at her with something like disgust in his eyes. He can’t quite manage it and she knows it's because she is the only thing that keeps him going, the only light in his eyes. His human eyes. 

“If I were Victor, I’d be off trying to be my best somewhere. I’m here, Priya.”

“Victor is what they made you. By putting all that junk in your head, you're choosing to be him.”

“Victor doesn’t know who he is. I do. My name is Anthony. You’re Priya. I’ve loved you since before we met.”

“Anthony didn’t have wires and circuits.”

“I don’t have wires and circuits,” he says harshly. 

“You’re Victor,” she accuses. 

“Victor loves you!” he says loudly. And she quiets because it's true. “What’s wrong with Victor then? If it weren’t for him loving you, we wouldn’t be here right now.”

“Victor loves Sierra.”

“You’re gonna have to realize,” he says, softly, gently, “that we aren’t as far away from them as you might like. They’re inside us, and always will be.”

She breaks down at that point and he simply holds her, stroking her hair. When she has a momentary flash of them doing this in reverse in a shower, not so long before, she realizes he has a point and that only makes her cry harder.

They finally have a home. Safehaven has become something Australia or LA never was. He helps her in the garden and they share moments in the grass and the soil. She will never get over needing living, growing things to make her happy. His face is streaked with dirt instead of paint or blood, and he's laughing and carefree. She can't see the studs from this angle and it makes her more relaxed than she's been in so long. He pulls her down to mingle with her garden and him and life and that moment is one she clings to in the months to come.

After T is born, the fighting starts in earnest. She rages at him for the inhumanity of the tech and he firmly stands his ground. It doesn't help that Echo and Paul stand by him, slightly disapproving, yet not censoring. It doesn't help that there was an attack where he saved the day. It doesn't help that she can feel his conviction and his love as strong as always. But her heart is starting to harden and every time she sees those studs the bloodlust she hasn't felt since Nolan begins to rise up in her. He was supposed to save her from those feelings. She could blame Topher for not letting her forget, but the genius now plays on the ground with broken toys and who could blame that? So she has to blame Tony, and if blame is to be laid, then his door is the right one.

They both make the decision to keep T away from the tech. It’s the only thing they can agree on. It doesn’t matter now because T is so young. But he’ll grow older and his father’s face will be the one to ruin that hedge of protection. Priya pleads with him, the tears streaming down her face, her pain a monument to everything in their past and future. 

“Be his father,” she begs. “Be mine.”

“I will never be anything but yours,” he replies. 

But he doesn’t remove the studs.

In the meantime, he rocks his son and sings to him. He builds him toys or finds him broken ones that Topher can fix. Topher doesn’t do more than that these days, and it’s a welcome sight to see him doing something other than mumbling scientific gibberish. But that sight is marred by the other one that’s more common, a tech-filled body holding her son, speaking words of endearment. Were those words programmed into him? Did he find something that would make him say the right things? If so, it isn’t real. And if there’s anything Priya can’t stand, it’s a lie.

They still make love, the desperation of the times, of their needs, overpowering any resentment she can’t quite conceal. His body is as welcoming as it ever was, but she begins to think it’s just a shell and whatever's inside has long drained away the essence of the man she loves. She starts to fear she will be enslaved to him forever. She can’t seem to manage living without feeling him near her. They’ve tried to separate, back so long ago, before they’d left the Dollhouse. It only took the road to Safehaven to cause them to seek each other out again. 

Eventually, she grows to hate the sight of Tony near T. It becomes too painful to see something that should be the pride of her heart, surrounded by hints of rotting lies and shiny, metal illusions that destroyed the world and now want to destroy her. She manages to tell him calmly and he doesn’t argue. She never sees them together after that but she knows he still sees T. Every time she’s out in the garden and leaves the baby with Adelle or another person who’s escaped from hell, she doesn’t see him and she knows it’s because he’s with T. It’s what she wants, but the fear grows stronger than the desire.

He’s gone for long periods of time on missions, they never call them engagements now, and she spends that time worrying, hating, fearing, and feeling as if he’s stripping her humanity away with his own.

She’s going to tell him that he has to leave. He’s going to accept it and realize that T’s old enough to grow attached to the person of his father. He must leave now before it’s too late. He’ll be a wandering tech-head, with his buddies and their necklaces of tech. Priya almost laughs at the irony of the image of their savagery, chips instead of teeth, the trophies of cavemen who’ve evolved into computers and find they haven’t changed at all. It’s not human. And she’s going to tell him that. She’s going to soak in the smell of him and then feel her heart freeze and shatter as she watches their monstrosity drive away.

But there’s an attack - there’s screaming and running and she’s desperately searching for T. Adelle has him, where is Adelle? And she sees Tony, she sees him running for her, motioning for her to run. And she can see what’s chasing him. Then it happens and the bright light shines behind him and she can’t look away from the horror. Because he’s on the ground, wondering if he’s been sleeping, and Paul has caught her around the waist and is dragging her away, and she’s screaming and fighting him and then there's darkness.

When the darkness fades, it’s still dark. She’s lying on her – their - cot, and T is in his cradle. She can feel him in the room and she searches the darkness. A light is struck and Echo is there, holding Priya’s husband by the hand.

“Tony?” she asks in a voice that quivers more than a little.

“Who is Tony? Is he your friend, Sierra?”

She recoils.

“Echo?”

“He got wiped,” the other woman says plainly. 

There’s no room for easing things in anymore.

“Sierra, you’re sad. Why are you sad?”

“Make him stop, make him stop,” she shrieks and Echo takes a hold of her shoulders while Victor looks on helplessly.

“Pull yourself together, Priya. He can’t remember, but that’s still Tony.”

“He wanted to be Victor and now he is,” she wails instead of answering. “Nothing but circuits in his head. He’s gone.”

“Priya!” Echo shouts and shakes her friend.

She looks up and sees the harsh lines of Echo’s face and manages to quiet herself.

“What’s going to happen?” she asks quietly.

“I’m trying to see if Topher can look at him, but the idea is freaking him out. Just talk to him. He trusts you, help him.”

“He’s not, he’s not-"

“He’s Tony. Now help him.”

Echo leaves them alone and Victor stands by the door, afraid, unsure, clearly wanting to advance, but not knowing if he can.

“Victor,” she says slowly.

“Sierra,” he replies eagerly, “did I do something wrong?”

“No,” she says. “No. You’re your best. Come and sit.” 

If she sounds a little sarcastic, she doesn't care.

He moves toward her, his body language so foreign to her after having practically imprinted Tony’s in her mind. But it’s not unfamiliar, she can feel that.

“Who is that?” he asks, pointing toward the cradle.

Priya stiffens, but goes and picks up T.

“He’s my son. His name is T.”

“Why do you have a son?”

“Because I needed him,” she answers. 

Victor looks confused.

“He’s nice. His face is peaceful.”

“He’s sleeping,” she says quietly. “Do you know any songs, Victor?”

“Songs?”

“To sing.” 

She demonstrates.

He looks enraptured.

“Do it again, please.”

Priya knows her voice isn’t anything special, but Tony has always liked it. She flinches at the memory and sings for Victor and T.

Victor sleeps on the floor, because he says that he can’t sleep on a bed. He asks where the pods are and she can’t answer him. She goes to the main room of the house and finds Adelle, Paul, and Echo. Topher is crouching in the corner, writing things on his hands. Adelle watches him closely as she speaks.

“How is he?”

“He’s sleeping,” Priya answers. “He’s a Doll.” 

She can’t keep the bitterness out of her voice.

“What can we do?” Paul asks smoothly, avoiding her tone. 

She smiles to herself because Paul is always like that. It appears that no one can ever leave the old life behind.

“We don’t keep any tech here,” Echo says. “We’d need his personality.”

“Wedges are required,” Topher mumbles. “Taken from the seat of power, multiplied to the full. I did that too many times.”

“Wedges,” Priya says brightly, remembering. “Tony, he told me, there are backups of all of us in Los Angeles. Back there.”

“That’s a war zone,” Adelle puts in. “It would be nearly impossible to retrieve it.”

“But it’s Tony,” Priya pleads. “You can’t leave him like that. You can’t condemn him to being Victor.”

“Victor loves Sierra,” Topher says. “I can’t live with a secret like that. Why didn’t they protect her?”

“Sierra’s fine, Topher,” Adelle tells him gently. “Remember how you freed her and helped her become Priya again?”

“No one’s free,” he replies. “No one’s free and it’s because I drew that map.”

“Sh, sweetheart,” Adelle says, leaning down closer to him and he clings to her hand.

“Echo,” Priya pleads, “please. I’ll go, I don’t care.”

“You’re staying here,” Echo says firmly. “Paul and I will go.”

“All right,” Paul says. “Road trip.”

“You’ll need some friends,” Adelle suggests. “Try Alpha.”

“Word last week said he was close,” Paul agrees. “He’ll have transport.”

“I have to help,” Priya says.

“You have a son,” Echo replies. “Now take care of him…and Tony. We’ll be back as soon as we can, but it’s gonna take some time. We’ll have to move slowly and who knows what we’ll find when we get there.”

“Thank you,” Priya says fervently. 

She hugs Echo gratefully. 

“We’ll leave as soon as possible.”

When Echo and Paul leave, surrounded by Alpha and his dogs, Priya begins to fret again. Her anxious desires are fueled by the past and now she doesn’t know what she wants. T is there and she puts her energy into him, but Victor is there too. He haunts her steps, an eagerness in his eyes when he looks at her. He seems to think that they should be together 24/7 and that she should think so too. She supposes that’s what Sierra wanted before. But that doesn’t help, because she’s not Sierra, and she refuses to be. But Victor is there anyway.

She has to admit Victor is a help. He’s tender with T and useful in the garden. He loves it, in fact. He works long hours, yet with such joy. Tony had that joy too, but she stops thinking like that, because she doesn’t want to dwell on what ifs. He waits for her, every night before bed, making sure she’s comfortable before he lies down on the floor. He holds her hand, but doesn’t make any sounds when she quietly withdraws it. He saves all the food he thinks she’ll like for her. Not that there's much of that, even if the garden is slowly growing.

It’s like a horror film that isn’t marketed as such. He’s the perfect man, wearing the face of her beloved, except there’s nothing there. He’s childish, playing with Topher when the boy genius will let him. Sometimes his proximity causes Topher to cry and beg forgiveness for the sins of creating such as Victor. Adelle comes down hard on those occasions. Then Victor is confused and Priya has to hold him. She minds, and, yet, it’s secretly good to hold Tony again. He’s Victor.

Sometimes she pretends that he is Tony and that Tony has given everything up for them. But she quickly faces reality again. That lie would be too similar to imprinting herself and she refuses to do that. If she could, she’d remove the studs from Victor’s face, but Topher won’t do it and she doesn’t trust anyone else. Adelle reminds her that if they bring back the wedge, that tech is the only thing that will allow them to put Tony back into his body. She doesn’t dare think about that. Or if she even wants it.

One day she’s in the garden and Victor’s beside her when he starts to twitch and falls over, eyes wide. She rushes to him.

“To- Victor, are you all right?”

“They’re everywhere,” he says, in a voice that’s more Tony’s than a Doll’s. “All over. We can’t save them. Men, we have to move out.”

With shock, she realizes he’s experiencing some of Tony’s war memories. But how, when Tony was gone? She takes him to Adelle once he stops shaking and the woman looks worried when she hears.

“I’d ask Topher,” she says, but doesn’t say anything more. 

Topher can barely help himself, let alone them.

“Is it possible he’s starting to remember things?” Priya asks.

“I don’t know,” Adelle says. “It’s possible that it’s simply been a long time since he’s had a treatment and his imprint is starting to fade. Yet, it’s not an imprint precisely, but a lack thereof. I’m afraid we are in uncharted territory because this would never have happened if-"

“If you were still running the world’s most successful slave organization.”

Adelle allows the slur because she’s never quite forgiven herself for that, Priya knows. But Priya still offers a quiet apology.

“It’s quite all right. Now, let’s let him rest and watch him closely.”

It happens again. And again. And again. Priya starts to panic inside because she has no idea what’s going to happen. Does she want Victor to become Tony now? Or does she never want Tony back because that was easier? If he never comes back she wouldn’t have to face the fact that he loves the tech more than her. But now she’s reminded of him in every way through Victor’s constant, unconditional devotion to her. It’s so similar to what she remembers from the beginning and that scares her.

T’s talking now and he already looks on Victor as someone very special in his life. Priya doesn’t know how to prevent that. Victor doesn’t know what he’s doing. His episodes of knowing who he is are becoming more frequent and he isn’t so Doll-like in between times. He still calls her Sierra, but there’s more awareness in his eyes.

One day she finds him with Topher and they’re playing cards. Go Fish, she realizes. The cards are torn and half of them are missing, but Topher had latched onto them when a passing caravan swung through weeks ago.

“You win,” Victor says happily. 

Just as happily as if he’d won, she thinks.

“We all lost,” Topher replies. “But the House, all the Dolls, we set them free - but who knows where they are? And she disappeared and I don’t know where they took her.”

“Time for Topher to rest,” Priya says, gathering Victor to leave. 

Adelle appears in the doorway and says a silent thank you.

“I am a Doll,” Victor says on their way out. 

Priya stops cold.

“What?”

“I’m not real,” he says. “My real name is Tony. And you’re not Sierra.”

“Tony?” she questions.

“I’m Victor,” he says. “But I’m not real. You used to be Sierra, but now you don’t love me anymore.”

With a rush, she realizes she does. She loves this child-like Doll like she loves Tony. She loves him because he is Tony, just a simplified version. 

“I do love you,” she says, taking his hand. “But it’s more complicated than that. You’re right, I’m not Sierra. My name is Priya and I married Tony. He’s the original you and he got taken away by a treatment. It was a bad treatment and I want him to come back. But that doesn’t mean that you’re not real.”

It's somewhat freeing to realize that, but the conflicts grow new edges to torment her with.

“All these things I remember,” Victor asks. “Do they belong to Tony?”

“Yes, they do.”

“Being with you in the pods. Was that Tony?” 

She blushes but his face remains blank. He means sleeping, she realizes.

“No, that was you. You and I - when I was Sierra - did many things. And that all belongs to you. You get to keep it.”

“But if Tony comes back,” Victor says slowly, “do I disappear? Is he my best?”

“Yes, he is,” she says, starting to cry. “But I don’t know where you go. I don’t want you to go.”

“I don’t want you to be sad, Sierra,” he says, taking her hand. “We should go outside where you will be happy.”

His moment of clarity is gone, she thinks, and lets him lead her outside. But though she still aches for and fears the return of Tony, she knows that Victor is a vital part of the person she loves and she doesn’t know what will happen.

Victor experiences more and more minutes of lucidity. He begins to lose that vacant expression that a dumbshow would be identified with. He knows more and more about Tony’s life and yet he continues to know all of Victor’s experiences. He retains more each time. 

Adelle shakes her head and says things under her breath. Sometimes Priya hears it.

“I guess Echo wasn’t so special after all.”

Topher starts to perk up when Victor’s around and begins to take more of an interest in his surroundings. Adelle obviously views this as nothing short of miraculous and encourages it as much as possible.

“It’s the soul,” Topher says often. “Echo found her soul and now Victor is finding his. Caroline wasn’t enough, no, too many minds, too many brains. But Victor has one - it should be better. I could make it better. No, I don’t do that. I make things worse. It’s my fault cause I know what I know, I know what I know, I know what I know…”

Adelle ushers them out when Topher relapses like that, but both of the men make progress and each day that comes brings Priya scanning the horizon - looking for Echo, for Paul, for Tony’s personality. She still doesn’t know what she wants and she’s afraid to ask anyone. She can’t pray and she can’t become someone else and the garden is less than a helping hand. She reads to T and rocks him and sings to him while Victor sits, adoringly, listening. And she waits. Is her heart ready for the future? Or for the past?

On the day Echo comes back Victor tells Priya that he remembers every day as Victor since the minute that he stepped into the Dollhouse. He doesn't remember life before the Dollhouse as well or any imprints that he had while there. But he remembers her. He remembers stopping being Victor and becoming Tony again - the desperate struggle with Rossum, the betrayal of Boyd, the tragedy of Whiskey and November, the spread of the tech, the disintegration of Topher, the wide panic and fear, the rise of the butchers, the long, hard hiding in the Dollhouse, their separation, their reunion, everything up till now. 

Priya takes T and runs to the far end of the compound and cries. Life is too cruel and she knows this because it ripped her away from everything, ground her into the dust, offered her a love, drove him away with a mistress of wires, and now presents two loves who are the same. It was like being offered two halves and not allowed to make them whole. It was torture and it was unending.

When the travelers arrive, Echo smiles in triumph and Paul appears no less smug. They’re battered and bruised and Alpha is too, but they’re whole. Echo hears the news and grows quiet, contemplative. Priya doesn’t know if that’s a good thing.

“I leave it to you,” she finally says. “Priya, you’re the only one with the right to decide what to do.”

Paul doesn’t look like he quite agrees with her, but he’s the one who loves Echo, not Caroline, and he doesn’t have a right to judge.

Priya looks at the back up wedge and looks at Victor. He doesn’t say anything, but he takes her hand and she wonders how much he really knows or wants or can decide.

There are problems no matter which way she goes. This wedge was scanned before the Dollhouse exodus. This Tony would know and love her, but he wouldn’t remember T or the time they’d spent struggling to survive before reaching this place. He wouldn’t remember building Safehaven or a thousand other gorgeous memories. Even with the angst tearing apart her soul, she’d rather die than have those memories taken from her. Victor has them and Victor loves her more than the tech.

But Victor isn’t the lawful owner of this body, even if he was born of it. Tony has a right to decide what he will do with his life. He deserves to know his son and teach him all the things that Victor doesn’t know and maybe never will. To keep the things he’d fought for all his life. To keep her, she hopes.

“Victor,” she says, her voice broken, “what do you want to do?”

Victor looks at her and in his eyes there is nothing but love. It’s pure, unadulterated, unself-motivated love and it breaks her heart because the fire isn’t there. This love has too strong a flavor, not tempered with human frailty. She sees the memory of that frailty, but not the experience.

“I want you to be happy,” he says. “I don’t belong here. I’m not real.”

She really cries at that, because he’s become more real to her than she would have ever thought possible.

“Then we have work to do,” Adelle says crisply. 

Victor nods and moves forward. Topher follows them, more animated than in a long time. Alpha moves to help, and Priya supposes that he knows what he’s doing, even if several of those brains of his belong to very evil men.

Topher tinkers with Victor’s head gear and Alpha helps him. Victor looks at her the whole time. Paul is saying something about needing to keep more tech here and Echo isn't immediately arguing, which Priya is more accepting of than she would have been only a short while ago.

“I do love you,” she whispers, hoping he’ll hear. 

Then it’s time. Before they can do it Echo rushes forward and says something to Victor and he looks at her and nods and there’s some kind of understanding that passes between them.

“Fall asleep,” Topher says. “Then hello to the new man.”

Victor’s eyes close and when they’re opened again, Priya can see the difference. Tony’s fire is there. Tony’s memories are there. Was he hers?

“Priya,” he says, “where's Priya?”

“I’m here,” she says, going to him and taking his hand. “What do you remember?”

He smiles. A great, big smile, one that doesn’t seem like his, but is so completely his. 

“I remember everything.”

“But you were wiped and this imprint is old.”

“Victor,” he says simply and her eyes open wide and she glances at Echo.

“What do you mean?”

“Victor is awake,” he says. “He didn’t go to sleep. He’s still here.”

“You mean…like-"

“Like me,” Echo says calmly.

“Not quite like you,” Alpha interjects. “Or me. Thank all that's holy. See, we woke up on our own, developed our own soul. Then we got a million other brains put into our heads at once and chaos reigned. So we had to take control. Me, I stayed that way, cause my original self is lost; but, you, Echo, you got Caroline back and she wasn’t strong enough to take that control. But you are, so you did. Now, Tony here…he’s interesting.”

“It’s a composite of two,” Topher says gleefully. “Victor stays awake, but Tony’s the stronger. You’re you, but you get tempered.”

“You mean,” Priya says, having been silent and wondering, “you mean that you’re you, but you’re also Victor?”

“I’m fully me,” he says gently. “Victor is me, but a me that didn’t have grown up supervision for awhile. He grew on his own. Then I came home and he became a part of me.”

“I never remembered Caroline before I got her back,” Echo says, then stops. “No, that's not true. I did. When I was drugged, I could see her and then the Rossum campus...” she trails off, lost in the past. 

But Priya is only worried about one thing. 

“Does that mean you remember T?”

“Where is he?” Tony asks and Priya finds herself overjoyed to realize that there is real concern in his voice.

“Let’s go see him,” she says and leads him away. 

The others let them go. They’re all happy, she thinks. They all know it will be all right.

Tony picks up his sleeping son and kisses him and her heart starts to heal a little. It’s far from healed and the war’s not over, but it’s a start. 

“I missed you,” he says, to both T and her. 

“We missed you,” she says. “All of you.”

“I remember how you missed me,” he says. 

“I’m going to have to get used to you having been gone and here at the same time.”

“It’s confusing,” he agrees, pulling her close so that he’s holding both of them. 

And that feels right. It is right.

“Which Tony are you? What’s in your head?”

“I can see how you feel about the tech,” he starts to say and she stiffens because now the nightmare’s starting over again and all the good feelings of the moment before were the carrot dangling to keep her going.

“What?”

“Victor knew how you feel. He wanted what you wanted. We both – I - will do anything for you.”

“Including the thing I asked you to do?” she asks, not daring to hope.

“Yes,” he whispers and she attacks him with her lips and he has to put T down before he drops him and he tugs on her shirt and she threads her fingers through his hair. 

They leave T to his room.

The beds are hard in Safehaven, but now they manage to feel like feathers and silk sheets because it’s Tony and he’s here and he isn’t leaving for a journey with some new language in his head that he doesn’t know. He isn’t taking things in and out and twisting his humanity and he cares for her more than she knew. His lips are soft and his body as beautiful as she remembers. He knows her back to back and through and through and there’s nothing more amazing than this moment in the world.

He is Tony. So completely Tony as he’s never been before.

“But do you have special imprints in your head? What’s going on in there?” she asks, lying with her head on his chest, tracing a tattoo he got on one of his trips. 

It was hers now.

“I’ve got nothing but what Topher gave me the night of the Rossum fight. Even the cooking,” he says, kissing her cheeks and neck and stomach and fingertips. 

She smiles.

“Will you keep it?”

“I’d like to if you agree,” he says. “I still need to fight, Priya. This war isn’t over and they need help. This will give me an edge.” 

She ponders for a moment, but Victor has taught her compromise.

“I trust you,” she says in response and kisses him again and again. 

There will never be enough time to kiss him as many times as she wants to.

Tony shows her his love for long hours after that. When they’re exhausted she gets up and brings T to lie between them. The little boy wakes up and starts sayings his few mangled words and she has to re-tell him that this is his daddy, but the thought doesn't scare her anymore. Tony holds both of his family and she swears she can never remember a time when she didn’t have Tony and T to love and cherish, to be surrounded by and helped by and loved by. They were a family, and, by being so, they’d already destroyed the horror that had tried to destroy them.


End file.
